Pit-houses of the Stone Age Belarus in the 4th millennium BC

Abstract

Abstract Fifty-eight Stone Age buildings discovered at 31 settlement sites are currently known in Belarus. Our attention is focused on 21 pit-houses, which are presumably dated to the 4th millennium BC and were found at 13 sites in southern Belarus. They are mainly related to the Eastern Polessye and Upper-Dnieper cultures of the Dnieper-Donets cultural complex, as well as to the Neman culture. Analysis of the shapes, sizes and constructive features of these pit-houses revealed both similarities (size up to 11 m2, depth ca. 0.3–0.5 m and the presence of rounded fireplaces without stones) and differences (rectangular or oval shapes for the Eastern Polessye culture and rounded for the Upper-Dnieper culture). Analogues of the Belarusian building remains exist on the territories of Ukraine and Lithuania. The distribution of these pit-houses indicates an architectural tradition that differs significantly from the second geographically well-defined pit-house area from the 4th millennium BC, which is located in Finland, north-western Russia and the northern coast of Estonia.